President Pranab Mukherjee confers Padma awards

Name of Late Chief Justice of India J S Verma, whose family had refused to accept Padma Bhushan, was missing from the list of awardees conferred with the civil honours today.

Of the 127 people, who were conferred with Padma Vibhushan, Padma Bhushan and Padma Shri on the eve of this year's Republic day, 66 were already honoured with the awards by the President at a special function held at Rashtrapati Bhavan on March 31.

Those presented with Padma Shri today included playwright and theatre artist Mohammad Ali Baig, folk artist Musafir Ram Bhardwaj, public health expert Indira Chakravarty, space scientist M Chandradathan and former captain of Indian women cricket team Anjum Chopra.

Rationalist Narendra Achyut Dabholkar, who was shot dead by unidentified assailants in Pune on August 20, 2013, has been conferred the award posthumously.  

Poet Keki N Daruwalla, Bengali film actress Supriya Devi mountaineer Love Raj Singh Dharmashaktu, Tabla player Vijay Ghate, Emeritus professor at Indian Statistical Institute Jayanta Kumar Ghosh, social worker Mukul Chandra Goswami, Founder Director of Delhi State Cancer Institute Rajesh Kumar Grover were also conferred Padma Shri.  

The coveted award was also presented to Opthalmologist Amod Gupta, Chemical scientist Ramakrishna Vijayacharya Hosur, vascular surgeon T P Jacob, social workers Manorama Jafa and Durga Jain, Unani medicine expert Hakim Syed Khaleefathullah, Oncologist Lalit Kumar, animation expert Ram Mohan and cardiologist Nitish Nayak.

Professor Emeritus University of Tokyo and scholar in Indian philosophy Sengaku Mayeda amd author of “The emperor of all maladies: A biography of cancer” and US-based oncologist Siddhartha Mukherjee have also been conferred with Padma Shri.  

Senior gyanaecologist Subhadra Nair, Kathak dancer Rani Karnaa Nayak, plant biologist Ajay Kumar Parida were also given the Padma Shri award.